You know how we can be about things which sparkle and shine. We imagine they will put back something of what has been lost.

She knew herself, how she had slowly, over years, become a cat, a wolf, a snake, anything but a girl. How she had wrung out her girlhood like death.

Do you know, Masha, how revelation comes? Like death. So sudden, though you knew all along it must occur. A revelation is always the end of something. It might even be cause for grief.

... relationships required such vigilance, such attention. You had to hold them together by force of will, and other people took up so much space, demanded so much time. It was exhausting.

Funny how "question" contains the word "quest" inside it, as though any small question asked is a journey through briars.

Why should he be spared?' 'Someone ought to be.' And it will not be me. I have survived, but I have not been spared.

Remember this when you are queen,” he whispered hoarsely. “I moved the earth and the water for you.